A Place Called Freedom (1995)

41

JAY WAS CONVINCED THEY WOULD CATCH LIZZIE today. He kept up a fast pace, driving the horses hard. “They can’t be far ahead,” he kept saying.

However, there was still no sign of the fugitives when he reached the Holston River at dusk. He was angry. “We can’t go on in the dark,” he said as his men watered their horses. “I thought we would have caught them by now.”

“We’re not far behind, calm down,” Lennox said testily. As the group traveled farther from civilization he became more insolent.

Dobbs put in: “But we can’t tell which way they went from here. There’s no trail across the mountains—any fool that wants to go has to find his own route.”

They hobbled the horses and tied Peg to a tree while Lennox prepared hominy for supper. It had been four days since they had seen a tavern, and Jay was sick of eating the mush he fed his slaves, but it was now too dark to shoot game.

They were all blistered and exhausted. Binns had dropped out at Fort Chiswell, and now Dobbs was losing heart. “I should give up and go back,” he said. “It ain’t worth fifty pounds to get lost in the mountains and die.”

Jay did not want him to go: he was the only one with any local knowledge. “But we haven’t caught up with my wife yet,” Jay said.

“I don’t care about your wife.”

“Give it one more day. Everyone says the way across the mountains is north of here. Let’s see if we can find the pass. We may catch her tomorrow.”

“And we may waste our damn time.”

Lennox spooned the lumpy porridge into bowls. Dobbs untied Peg’s hands long enough for her to eat, then tied her up again and threw a blanket over her. No one cared much for her well-being, but Dobbs wanted to take her to the Staunton sheriff: he seemed to think he would be admired for capturing her.

Lennox got out a bottle of rum. They wrapped themselves in their blankets and passed the bottle and made desultory conversation. The hours went by and the moon rose. Jay dozed fitfully. At some point he opened his eyes and saw a strange face at the edge of the circle of firelight.

He was so scared he could not make a sound. It was a peculiar face, young but alien, and he realized after a few moments that it belonged to an Indian.

The face was smiling, but not at Jay. Jay followed the gaze and saw that it was focused on Peg. She was making faces at the Indian, and after a minute Jay figured that she was trying to get him to untie her.

Jay lay dead still and watched.

There were two Indians, he saw. They were young boys.

One of them stepped silently into the circle. He was carrying a big fish. He put it gently down on the ground, then drew a knife and bent over Peg.

Lennox was as quick as a snake. Jay hardly saw what happened. There was a blur of movement and Lennox had the boy in an armlock. The knife fell to the ground. Peg gave a cry of disappointment.

The second Indian vanished.

Jay stood up. “What have we here?”

Dobbs rubbed his eyes and stared. “Just an Indian boy, trying to rob us. We should hang him as a lesson to the others.”

“Not yet,” said Lennox. “He may have seen the people we’re after.”

That thought lifted Jay’s hopes. He stood in front of the boy. “Say something, savage.”

Lennox twisted the boy’s arm harder. He cried out and protested in his own language. “Speak English,” Lennox barked.

“Listen to me,” Jay said loudly. “Have you seen two people, a man and a woman, on this road?”

“No trade today,” the boy said.

“He does speak English!” Dobbs said.

“I don’t think he can tell us anything, though,” Jay said dispiritedly.

“Oh, yes he can,” Lennox said. “Hold him for me, Dobbo.” Dobbs took over and Lennox picked up the knife the Indian had dropped. “Look at this. It’s one of ours—it has the letter T burned into the handle.”

Jay looked. It was true. The knife had been made at his plantation! “Why, then he must have met Lizzie!”

Lennox said: “Exactly.”

Jay felt hopeful again.

Lennox held the knife in front of the Indian’s eyes and said: “Which way did they go, boy?”

He struggled, but Dobbs held him tight. “No trade today,” he said in a terrified voice.

Lennox took the boy’s left hand. He hooked the point of the knife under the nail of the index finger. “Which way?” he said, and he pulled out the nail.

The boy and Peg screamed at the same time.

“Stop it!” Peg yelled. “Leave him alone!”

Lennox pulled out another fingernail. The boy began to sob.

“Which way to the pass?” Lennox said.

“Pass,” the boy said, and with a bleeding hand he pointed north.

Jay gave a sigh of satisfaction. “You can take us there,” he said.